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| - I don't usually do reviews this way but, the visit to Hawthorne's called for a different approach due to the variety of the components of the visit.
Service: 5 Stars
Greeted in a friendly way, seated and immediately asked for drink orders. One minute later a manager came up saying he noticed our server was double seated and wanted to make sure we got a drink order in. That was a nice touch. Our server overall was friendly and while very busy with a lot of tables, showed us an appropriate level of attention. Lots of different people brought food, cleared plates, etc. so a real team oriented approach to service.
Salad: 4 Stars
Got the Hawthorne's Salad which is mixed greens with candied pecans, mandarin orange slices, grape tomatoes, pepperoncinis and served with a blue cheese vinaigrette. All the components of the salad were fresh. The candied pecans were hit or miss in terms of being candied. The dressing did not hit me with much blue cheese flavor but was still very good and complimented the rest of the salad. One note - Stop charging $1 to split plates. That feels like such a nickel and dime kind of move and the way it annoys customers is not worth the few bucks you make off the practice.
Pizza: 2-3 Stars
It was A-OK in that it beat the frozen pizza I've got at home and was better than Dominos but to call this New York pizza is an insult to New York pizza. The biggest problem is the crust. No chew to it whatsoever. More bready than that yummy marriage of crispy and chewy that a real NY pizza crust brings to the table. I would love them to switch to a higher gluten flour. The toppings were a mixed bag. I really liked the beef being chunks of hamburger and not beef pellets. The pepperoni was nothing special but just fine. The white onions (nice touch to offer red or white) were plentiful but not really cooked enough. The cheese was average and the sauce was too sweet and, other than the crust, the worst thing on the pie.
The menu has a good deal of variety and based on the salad and service quality we will be back to try other things but in terms of pizza, we'll go elsewhere.
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